Sleep tight, Pranabda!

The finance minister Pranab Mukherjee says he is losing sleep over his government’s burgeoning subsidy bills. Really? Given the way the subsidy outgo has galloped in the past few years – it has almost doubled since 2007-08 – he clearly isn’t losing enough! Else he would have done something by now to rein in the subsidy bill.

After all, the present finance minister, unlike many previous finance ministers, wields an enormous amount of clout not only within the Cabinet but also within the Congress Party.

So if he is really concerned about the government’s inability to keep its expenses within manageable limits he could and must do more. Else given his seemingly endless capacity for work, sleep or no sleep, if we have to wait for him to lose yet more sleep before he acts, it might be too late to save the country from the consequences of his government’s profligacy!